Movie Review: ***^ McLintock! (1963)

This is a classic John Wayne movie.  It also stars Maureen O'Hara.  It is a Western remaking of the "Taming of the Shrew."  It tells the story of a cattle ranching area accepting into the community homesteaders.  G.W.'s (McLintock) wife left him a couple years earlier, but has returned to petition for divorce, and to take their daughter with her to the territorial capital.  G.W. refuses.  He is still not sure why she left, but things are not right between them.
Things are also not right between the Native Americans and the area settlers, and the government.  They have released the chiefs of the Comanche, but want them to move to a different reservation.  There is a negotiation, which was decided before the hearing, that the move had to take place.  The Native Americans saw they will not go, and would rather die in battle.
Add to this is the courtship of their daughter, with a college educated dandy, versus a young man her father has hired.  This movie has lots of nice characters, but the two that sparkle ware G.W. and his wife.  In fact it boils over with a good beating in the end.  The chase scene, on foot no less, with G.W. in pursuit is a classic.
These events take place around the town of McLintock.  We see the Fourth of July celebration with races and games and dances.  There is the city fight in the mud.  McLintock helps the Indians to escape, with the hopes of forcing an investigation, and thereby expose the poor treatment they have received from the governor and the agent.
Drawbacks to this movie are the caricature of an elderly Native American as a drunk always looking for a party with whiskey.  There are also portrayals of white individuals with drinking issues, including McLintock, but not as caricatured.  Also I do not condone spousal abuse. (It was a different era.)